Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN VOICE » DECEMBER 29/1994
15
Magazine tracks gay business growth
by WAYNE HOFFMAN
It may not have the cachet of the For
tune 500, but the Victory! 50 is an impor
tant step toward recognizing the tremen
dous growth occurring in the business
sector of the gay community. In the cur
rent issue of Victory!, the year-old national
gay and lesbian entrepreneur magazine,
the publication ranks the 50 fastest grow
ing gay-owned companies.
From the Big Hair/Big Art hair
salon and art gallery in Sacramento,
with gross revenues in 1993 of
$81,000 to the Denver-based soft
ware giant Quark Inc, with earnings
of $110 million, all the businesses in
the Victory! 50 experienced signifi
cant growth over the previous year.
Two Atlanta businesses made the
list: Brushstrokes, which reported a
25 percent revenue increase last year,
and PFM Mortgage Services, which
enjoyed a 37.5 percent increase.
"A list of the 50 largest compa
nies would be stagnant," says pub
lisher MJ McKean-Reich, who is
planning to make the list an annual
event. "Instead, seeing the fastest
growth, you'll see what are the hot
businesses, what are the niches
people are getting into."
Victory! magazine did not
qualify for its own list; being only
one year old, it had no 1992 finan
cial record upon which to improve. Be
sides, the fledgling magazine has yet to
turn a clear profit. But perhaps next year,
it will join fellow gay publications Out
and Genre on the list.
With a print run of 20,000, Victory! has
already achieved serious national expo
sure since its debut last December.
McKean-Reich hopes eventually to in
crease advertising, pull the magazine
firmly into the black, and double circula
tion. Optimistic plans in a field littered
with failed publications, perhaps, but
McKean-Reich is something of a success
story of gay entrepreneurship in his own
right.
Growing up in Pittsburgh's inner city,
McKean-Reich lived on AFDC govern
ment assistance, spared the trials of urban
gang life only because he was "too effemi
nate" to be a part of any gang, until he
entered college at Yale. Though he earned
a degree in organizational behavior, he
always maintained a keen interest in busi
ness affairs.
After graduate school and a job lead
ing diversity seminars for men's clubs,
McKean-Reich decided he was ready to
take on corporate America. With the help
of his lover, Thomas, McKean-Reich—a
27-year-old novice with no previous ex
perience in publishing and no educational
background in business—started Victory!
in December 1993. His goal in launching
Victory! was "to provide opportunity for
other people, not to push my ideas on
them but to say, 'If you want to do this,
this is the way I did it.'"
But defining a gay business is not a
simple matter. McKean-Reich outlines the
types of businesses his magazine covers:
the gay-owned, gay-oriented store; gay-
owned businesses, like Quark, that cater
to mainstream consumers; gay-friendly
companies that are straight-owned; and
finally, mainstream companies run by
straight people that may include out
standing gay entrepreneurs within their
ranks.
Despite the range of businesses cov
ered, it is apparent from the photos ac
companying the Victory! 50 that nearly all
of these entrepreneurs are white, and a
lopsided majority are men.
"I think it's reflective of mainstream
America. I think we are a smaller
multicultural version of the larger pic
ture," says McKean-Reich. He is happy to
report that the gender split among sub
scribers is nearly even, but this has been
achieved only with serious effort. "We
look for the women, while the men come
to us," he says.
McKean-Reich hopes that Victory! can
do for gay business people what Black
Enterprise or Working Woman did for oth
ers in the past—namely, showcase role
models and create a forum for discussion
of problems within a budding minority
business community. Only by building up
our community economically, he argues,
can we achieve the mainstream accep
tance, exposure, and respect we desire.
"The only way things are going to
change is if we own businesses," he says.
"The next step for the civil rights agenda
for the gay community in my opinion is
economic stability."
WANTED: Gay
Man who is
into honest
communication,
intimate moments,
h^t sex, and
ndoms.
1438 West Peachtree Street Nw, Suite 100
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
(404) 872-0600
Stay in Bloom This Winter
Are you ready to get good at taking care of yourself?
No matter what shape you're in now, we can help you devise
comfortable, sensible ways to build well being. And enjoy it.
It isn't easy, but you're worth it. Call us Today. Let's get started.
13 Corporate Square
Suite 107, Atlanta • 325-2273
STOSH OSTROW, M.D.
General Practice